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Mlily Cup

Mlily Cup（Mlily梦百合杯世界围棋公开赛）is a Chinese international tournament created in 2013. The sponsor is a Chinese manufacture of mattress and bedding products, with Mlily as its main brand name. As it currently stands, Mlily Cup is run every two years, alternating with the Bailing cup. Mlily also famously sponsored the jubango between Gu Li and Lee Sedol in 2014.

Tournament Format:

Mlily Cup is a 64-player knockout tournament. A small number of seats are allocated: 5 Chinese, 3 Korean, 3 Japanese and 1 Taiwanese. 2 seats are reserved for wild card players. 2 seats are for winner and runner-up of the previous term. The rest are selected from an open preliminary tournament (there are a few special groups for women and amateur players). The semifinals are best-of-3 and the final is best-of-5.

Prize Money:

The winner prize is 1,800,000 CNY. The runner-up prize is 600,000 CNY. There are also significant cash prizes for those losing the earlier rounds: 250,000 CNY for those losing the semifinals; 160,000 for round 4; 80,000 for round 3; 40,000 for round 2; 20,000 for round 1.

Time System:

Main time: 2 hours; byoyomi: 1 minute, with 5 opportunities to go beyond 1 minute. The final games have longer 3-hour main time.

Ruleset and Komi:

Chinese rule with 3 and 3/4 stones komi (equivalent to 7.5 points).

Key Players, Events and Statistics:

Like other major international tournament, although the qualifying tournament is open to all professionals, for cost reason, it is dominated by players from the hosting country.